关键词: 理解监控, 词汇知识, 语素意识, 语义相关

Abstract: Comprehension monitoring refers to the meta-cognitive process where the comprehender detects a mismatch between the current situation model and new information presented in the text (awareness and evaluation process), and then reconstructs the situation model to correct this mismatch (regulation and repair process). However, the development and influencing factors of this skill have not been well explored. Previous research on the development of comprehension monitoring has been controversial, particularly regarding whether third-grade students possess this ability. Research on the influence of individual cognitive factors on comprehension monitoring ability has mostly focused on participants with alphabetic language backgrounds, such as English, with little research on native Chinese speakers. Furthermore, researchers often overlook the impact of text characteristics on the comprehension monitoring process. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to use eye-movement technique, which continuously tracks online cognitive processes during reading to reveal the development of comprehension monitoring in third-and fifth-grade children, while also focusing on the role of text relevance, vocabulary knowledge, and morphemic awareness. This study used eye-movement technology in combination with an inconsistency detection paradigm. In the experimental design exploring the development of morphemic awareness and the impact of text relevance on comprehension monitoring, a two (semantic consistency: consistent vs. inconsistent) × two (text relevance: relevant vs. irrelevant) within-subjects experimental design was adopted. This crossed relationship formed four conditions: consistent-relevant, consistent-irrelevant, inconsistent-relevant, and inconsistent-irrelevant. The average sentence plausibility, stroke count, average character frequency, word frequency, and familiarity were balanced across these four types of sentences. In exploring the impact of vocabulary knowledge and morphemic awareness on comprehension monitoring ability, a two (semantic consistency: consistent vs. inconsistent) × vocabulary knowledge × morphemic awareness three-factor experimental design was adopted. The materials were presented using the Eye-link 1000 Plus Tower eye tracker, with the sampling frequency set at 1000Hz. According to eye-movement research conventions, only the data from the children’s right eye were recorded. Each child only read one version of the materials, comprising 108 sentences in total. Of these, 20 filler sentences were followed by a reading comprehension question requiring a true/false judgment. The aim was to encourage and supervise the children to read the experimental materials carefully. During the experiment, the children adjusted their reading speed independently, and after reading a screen of text, they pressed any key on the handle to move to the next screen. Before the formal experiment, there were 12 practice sentences to help familiarize the participants with the experimental procedure. These practice sentences were not repeated in the main experiment. The entire experiment lasted about 20 minutes. The eye-movement results showed that both third-and fifth-grade children exhibited comprehension monitoring processes in both the awareness (gaze duration) and repair (second reading time and regression path duration) phases. However, fifth-grade children were slightly faster in repairing inconsistent information, as evidenced by their shorter regression path duration times compared to third-grade children. The comprehension monitoring process was not modulated by semantic relevance. However, third-and fifth-grade children showed different levels of attention to relevant information in the text. Fifth-grade children, in particular, seemed to focus more on processing relevant information, with increasing gaze duration on relevant information, leading to no significant difference between relevant and irrelevant conditions. This suggests that children with richer vocabulary knowledge are faster at repairing inconsistent information. Morphemic awareness did not modulate reading comprehension monitoring directly, but it did affect the repair phase of comprehension monitoring through vocabulary knowledge. In summary, this study found that both third-and fifth-grade children exhibited comprehension monitoring abilities in both the awareness and repair phases, with developmental differences observed in the repair phase-fifth-grade children demonstrated stronger regulation and repair abilities. However, text relevance did not modulate the comprehension monitoring process in children. Regarding individual cognitive abilities, vocabulary knowledge had a significant main effect on all three eye-movement indices, indicating that children with richer vocabulary knowledge spent less time reading. Furthermore, vocabulary knowledge could modulate the repair phase of comprehension monitoring, with children possessing richer vocabulary knowledge exhibiting stronger repair abilities. Morphemic awareness did not directly modulate the development of children’s comprehension monitoring abilities but played a role through vocabulary knowledge. The innovation of this study lies in two aspects: first, it explored the impact of text relevance on comprehension monitoring ability and found that with development, children increasingly focus on the relevant content of the text. Second, it revealed that morphemic awareness affects children’s comprehension monitoring ability through vocabulary knowledge. Future research could consider additional text feature variables, such as text genre or content familiarity, to further investigate the role of text features. Expanding the age range of children would also be beneficial for further exploration of this issue.

Key words: comprehension monitoring, vocabulary knowledge, morphemic awareness, semantic relevance